Brazil's Rousseff vetoes increased pension spending proposal

SAO PAULO, July 30 (Reuters) - Brazil's President Dilma
Rousseff vetoed a measure to raise pension expenditure in coming
years as she struggled to shore up government finances, the
country's official gazette reported on Thursday.

The veto had been expected since Congress passed an
amendment to readjust pension payments annually with the same
formula used to raise the minimum wage.

Rousseff, whose approval rating has dropped to 7.7 percent
according to one poll, is struggling to run an austerity program
and avoid a credit-rating downgrade without losing any more
support from her leftist support base in Congress that does not
want to see social programs sacrificed.

Her government has said extending the minimum wage scheme to
pensions would cost state coffers an extra 2 billion reais ($606
million) for every one percentage point increase in pensions.